With the great advances in semiconductor technologies over the last thirty years, computer hardware reliability has increased significantly. Software installed and used on the computer causes more, than 80% of computer problems.
Many computer users are not sufficiently technically trained to handle a system failure. They often need to contact a call center for assistance. This is a time consuming and costly way of supporting computer systems, as the technical support staff at the call center cannot see the problem. Furthermore, many users do not have a full or complete back up regime and therefore are not always able to restore their computer system to full operational capability.
There are a number of remote management software applications available. They enable an authorized remote computer user to logon to the host computer. The remote computer user will have the full control of, and access rights to, the host computer as if operating at the host computer location. Remote software applications are good for many applications such as distant working. A user can access their company computer system from a home computer system over the Internet. However, such remote software is not suitable for remote technical support for the system or software. The computer user should not be required to allow access to their sensitive or private data files to unknown third party maintenance staff.
Problems relating to the reliability of software installed on a computer may be classified as being due to:                1) installation and use of unstable software that leads to a system failure;        2) installation and use of an unsuitable device driver that leads to a system failure;        3) unintentional deletion of important system files that leads to a system failure;        4) installation and use of software that conflicts with a system dynamic link library;        5) attacks by computer viruses or hackers that lead to system instability and failure;        6) excessive software installations that lead to a large number of system files. This may cause system instability, and slow processing; and        7) installation and use of various service providers that leads to system instability and failure.        
It is often difficult and time consuming to identify the cause of any of the above problems. Frequently, a skilled technician is required to handle these issues, which is costly for most small and medium sized companies. Furthermore, some data may be permanently lost during a system failure leading to financial loss to the company.
However, it is possible to identify the condition of the computer system-operating environment as being in a normal or unstable state. If it is possible to maintain and backup the entire system environment when it is in a normal working condition, it will be possible to resolve the unstable system condition by restoring the normal working system environment after detection, prior to, or after system failure. A normal working operating environment can then resumed.
There are many software maintenance, back up and recovery solutions available. In general, these solutions differ by using various methods to restore the system environment. However, none are capable of restoring dynamic data files, especially those containing user data that was modified between the last back up and the system failure. Some data loss is inevitable with known products. Such data loss may cause significant difficulties to the computer user. For example, an address book, stored email messages, and so forth may be permanently lost. This issue becomes more significant when the user does not back up or save their data files on a regular basis.